September 15, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 2, 1428

LAHORE, Sept 14: The Punjab government has planned a severe crackdown on the unlicensed stockholders of wheat with immediate effect, says an official handout.

Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi directed the authorities to take action against those trying to create artificial shortage of wheat although the government had ample stock of wheat in its stores.

The chief minister directed the administration to move quickly and arrest the wheat hoarders and take action against them. Illegal supply of flour to Afghanistan is also being checked.

DCO: District Coordination Officer (DCO) Muhammad Ijaz says flour was available at all 11 Ramazan bazaars set up by the city district government at a rate of Rs295 per 20kg bag.

He claims that at some bazaars some flour bags remained unsold.

According to him, of 30 flour mills in the district 24 are functional due to which shortage of the commodity may be experienced by citizens on Friday. But the problem will be overcome on Saturday (today) with extra supplies from Sheikhupura and Kasur districts.

He said raids would be conducted if the authorities found anyone hoarding flour and the seized commodity would be immediately released to the open market.